Tashia Baker is planning an expansion of a square flower garden in a city park. If each side of the original square is increased by 7 meters, the new total area of the garden will be 144 square meters. Find the length of the original garden.

Solve the following quadratic equations by factoring and name the techniques used
Example : completing the square, quadratic formula, square root method, factoring.
See attached file for full problem description.

Explain the four steps for solving quadratic equations? Can any of the steps be eliminated? Can any of the steps be changed? Would you add any steps to make it easier, or to make it easier to understand?